UAE and US troops prepare for Native Fury military exercise

A huge military exercise involving live fire training will take place in the UAE desert next month.

Thousands of marines, sailors and high-ranking officers from the US and UAE militaries will be involved in Native Fury on March 8.

The operation will ensure combat personnel are prepared if they find themselves in a conflict.

The teams will also exchange skills and knowledge related to humanitarian missions, such as how to move aid into areas affected by natural disasters.

The drill tests take place twice a year and Native Fury is the seventh such exercise.

Units from 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, a US marine task force, will lead a variety of challenges to accomplish several training objectives.

Live fire training will be carried out, as well as ship-toshore offloads of personnel, equipment and humanitarian resources.

In the build-up to the training mission, Lt Gen Carl Mundy III, commander of the US Marine Corps Forces, said such training exercises were the foundation of any military body.

“This exercise is a great opportunity for both countries to demonstrate military readiness and a strong commitment to stability in the Gulf,” he said.

“We are honoured to train alongside the UAE, a strategic partner of the United States in this region.”

Last year, a smaller UAE-US operation called Iron Union took place deep in the Abu Dhabi desert.

It culminated in a live-fire exercise, with US mortars and Bradley Fighting Vehicles lined up alongside Emirati armed reconnaissance units to shoot at distant targets.